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Hellraisers Journal – Friday May 30, 1913
Washington, D. C. – Senate Orders Inquiry into West Virginia Coalfields
From the Bridgeport Evening Farmer (Connecticut) of May 29, 1913:
Tag: Coeur d’Alene Labor Troubles-U. S. House Investigation of 1900
Hellraisers Journal: The Railroad Telegrapher: “Idaho’s Disgrace”-U. S. House of Representatives Investigates
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 2, 1900
Washington, District of Columbia – House Investigates Coeur d’Alene Troubles
From The Railroad Telegrapher of April 1900:
IDAHO’S DISGRACE.
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THE investigation before the Committee on Military Affairs of the House of Representatives, with reference to the charges made against the United States soldiers under Brigadier General Merriam, growing out of the labor troubles in the Coeur d’Alene mining district in Idaho, has been creating intense interest in labor circles and elsewhere for some time past. Even those who are callous to labor’s wrongs and pin their faith to the theory that the survival of the fittest is the prevailing law in heaven as well as on earth and the other place, have felt some qualms of conscience that such things should happen in “The land of the free and the home of the brave.”
After a strike and some riotous proceedings, which latter could easily have been quelled by the local authorities, the Governor of the State [Frank Steunenberg] suspended the writ of habeas corpus, an infringement of the liberties of the people not even within the prerogative of the President of the United States, without the sanction of Congress. Over eleven hundred citizens were arrested without warrant by this tyrannically-inclined “servant of the people” and confined in a place unfit for human habitation, and kept there for a period ranging from a few days to eight months.
By and through the courtesy of the Miner’s Magazine and the Pueblo Courier, we are enabled to present pictures of some of the men who have been made “Martyrs of the Bull Pen.”
Hellraisers Journal: Ed Boyce, President of Western Federation of Miners, Pays His Respects to General Merriam
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 28, 1900
President Boyce on Gen. Merriam: “pusillanimous tool…of the mine operators…”
From the Kansas City Labor Record of January 25, 1900:
THE WARDNER TROUBLE
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General Merriam Censured for his Persecution
of Union Miners. Not a Union Man
Allowed to Work.
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In the initial issue of the Miners Magazine President Boyce pays his respects to General Merriam in the following caustic manner:
The following interview with General Merriam by a reporter of the Rocky Mountain News was published in that paper Dec. 13th:
You can say for me,” said the general yesterday to a News man, “that the more Congress investigates the Coeur d’Alene troubles the better it will please me. I am pleased to know that such a movement is on foot.
“The constitution speaks for itself,” continued General Merriam. “Martial law was proclaimed by Governor Stuenenberg May 3d last. Three days after I was ordered to the scene. Arrests were made by the stale authorities, but I do not care to discuss the question. The records speak for themselves.”
Had this pusillanimous tool in the hands of the mine operators, clothed in the uniform of a general bearing the U. S. brand, been animated with no other desire than to do his duty when he reached the Coeur d’Alenes, there would be no need of a congressional investigation.
Did he not arrest every man in the country at the suggestion of the mine operators without cause or provocation and confine them in a filthy barn unfit for habitation, with instructions to shoot any man who showed his head, and denied them the right to consult with counsel?
Did he not examine and approve over his signature one of the most infamous proclamations that ever emanated from the brain of man, which denied every man the right to seek employment in the mines of Shoshone county unless he denounced organized labor and obtained a permit from Dr. France, the Bunker Hill and Sullivan company doctor, noted for his extreme prejudice against organized labor?
Hellraisers Journal: New York World: “Congress to Probe Standard Oil War on Idaho Miners” – Wardner Bullpen to Close
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday December 2, 1899
Wardner, Idaho – Bullpen to Close; Congress to Investigate
From the New York World of December 1, 1899:
CONGRESS TO PROBE STANDARD OIL WAR
ON IDAHO MINERS.
Gen. Merriam’s “Bull Pen,”
Which Once Held 2,000 Prisoners,
Is to Be Closed Next Week.
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NATION AND TRUST VS. UNION.
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Trouble Started Seven Years Ago
—Life and Property Have Been Lost
—Both Sides Welcome Inquiry.
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MARTIAL LAW TO CONTINUE AWHILE.
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Cases of Mine-Owners and Miners Ready for Congress
-Bitterness Against Standard Oil.
—–(Special to The World.)
WALLACE, Idaho, Nov. 30.—Congress is to investigate Idaho’s seven-year war in which the Standard Oil Company, owner of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan Mines in the Coeur d’Alene district, has, aided by the Federal and State authorities, opposed the Miners’ Union. Senator Carter, of Montana, and Senator Heitfeld, of Idaho, champions o the miners, will move for such an investigation early in the session.
Already State Auditor Bartlett Sinclair announces that the famous or infamous Wardner “bull pen,” in which at one time the military authorities had as many as 2,000 prisoners, is to be closed next week—coincident with the meeting of Congress.
Of the total number o£ men incarcerated there only eighteen had a trial before a court or before a jury of their peers. Others were arrested and held at the pleasure of the military or state authorities. Terms of imprisonment ranged from three weeks to three months. Martial law had been proclaimed.
